Here is what The Associated Press is reporting: Researchers are studying a pervasive psychological phenomenon in which oh man we’ve got to finish doing the taxes this weekend …
C’mon, admit it. Your train of thought has derailed like that many times. It’s just mind-wandering. We all do it, and surprisingly often, whether we’re struggling to avoid it or not. Mainstream psychology hasn’t paid much attention to this common mental habit. But a spate of new studies is chipping away at its mysteries and scientists say the topic is beginning to gain visibility. Someday, such research may turn up ways to help students keep their focus on textbooks and lectures, and drivers to keep their minds on the road. It may reveal ways to reap payoffs from the habit. And it might shed light on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which can include an unusually severe inability to focus that causes trouble in multiple areas of life. (more…)

Research in this months Journal of Health and Social Behavior reports that one out of five parents would not want a child with depression or ADHD as neighbors, in their child’s classroom, or as their child’s friend. Older children and boys with mental conditions are most likely to be rejected. This troubling pattern, the investigators report, appears to result from perceptions that a mentally ill child may be “dangerous.” (more…)

According to recent research, exercise can indeed help you grow brain cells! This is an incredible break-through for science. Traditional teaching in medicine was that once we lose brains cells we do not replace them. Now new human research published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences shows even 3 months of aerobic exercise results in sprouting new neurons in your brain, particularly areas involved in memory and learning. Being active may actually prevent Alzhiemers, ADHD, or other cognitive disorders, in addition to improving mood and sleep, decreasing anxiety, increasing self esteem, and enhancing resiliency. There is no better medicine. So get moving to build your muscles and your IQ.
Check out the cover story of the March 26th issue of Newsweek (available March 19th in newstands) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17662246/site/newsweek/

Fewer than a third of American adults eat the amount of fruits and vegetables the government recommends, a trend that’s remained steady for more than a decade, health officials said Thursday. That’s “well below” the government’s goal of getting 75 percent of Americans to eat two servings of fruits and having half of the population consume three servings of vegetables each day by 2010, said Dr. Larry Cohen of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The diet survey, part of a huge federal health survey of every state, is based on responses from 305,000 adults in 2005. It indicates the country is only about halfway toward meeting its healthy eating goal three years from now. Specifically the survey showed that 27 percent of adults ate vegetables three times a day, and about 33 percent ate fruit twice a day. A serving size is a half-cup for most fruits and vegetables, one cup for leafy greens.

Senior citizens were more likely than others to follow Mom’s advice to eat more veggies, with slightly more than a third of that group eating three or more servings each day. Younger adults, age 18 to 24, ate the fewest vegetables. Nearly four-fifths of that age category scraped the veggies to the side of their plates — if they had vegetables on the plate at all.
Likewise, seniors also ate the most fruit, with nearly 46 percent eating two or more servings of fruit daily. People age 35 to 44 ate fruit the least, with fewer than 28 percent eating the recommended amount of fruit each day. The federal agency said it doesn’t know why people aren’t eating more veggies or fruits. Cohen said future surveys will ask people what other foods they are eating. Susan Krause, a clinical dietitian at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, said people are eating more refined sugars or choosing protein instead of fruits and vegetables.”There’s so much information out there and people get very confused. When they’re looking at protein, they feel that’s the solution when they’re not looking at long-term health benefits,” she said. “There’s so many fabricated foods now and people are looking at convenience.”

Not only are fruits and vegetables lower-calorie, they also have minerals and fiber that help guard against chronic diseases and cancer, the CDC says. The survey relied on people to report what they were eating. Telephone questioners asked how often they consumed fruit juice, fruit and vegetables. Although Hispanics ate the most fruits (37 percent) compared with blacks and whites, they ate the fewest vegetables, (about 20 percent). Whites, in contrast, ate the fewest fruits (31 percent) but the most veggies (28 percent).Cohen said the CDC has been working on family and community programs to get more people to eat their veggies. The agency is working with the U.S.

Department of Agriculture to get more fresh produce into schools. Krause said health officials should offer people simple options for getting fruits and vegetables in their diets, such as easy recipes in cooking classes and fruit smoothies or shakes in schools. “If that’s a way of getting it in, at least it’s in the right direction,” she said. “Certainly (whole) fruit is a better choice, but that could be the next alternative.”
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On the Net:
CDC info: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr
Serving size info:
http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga20

Does your child with ADHD ever have problems sleeping? You’re not alone. Many people with ADHD have difficulty getting to bed at a reasonable hour and turning off their brain. Are there alternatives to medication? An article just published in the Feb 2007 Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry examines the roll of melatonin in ADHD children with “chronic sleep onset insomnia”. Children in the study were ages 6-12, taking either 3mg or 6mg of melatonin depending on body weight. Results showed that melatonin helped kids both fall asleep sooner and stay asleep longer. No more counting sheep - or waking up mom and dad!

Here is our position on the FDA warning regarding stimulant medications:

There is no new information on stimulant risks, although the media is presenting it as such. The FDA has been examining potential risks of ADD medications for the last several years. FDA sub-committees of physicians (cardiologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians) have been meeting to determine what level of labeling should be added to stimulant medications since there have been cases of “sudden death” in patients taking stimulants. Those patients who died were found to have underlying cardiac problems, so the question was did the medication cause the underlying cardiac problem or was the cardiac problem a pre-existing condition? The FDA admits it “does not have good information” indicating whether ADHD drugs caused the cardiovascular events. In fact the risk of sudden death in the general population not taking stimulants is higher than the risk of sudden death in ADD patients taking a stimulant. Therefore the FDA concluded that stimulant medications may or may not have contributed to the cardiovascular problems.

This led to the decision by the FDA not to put a “black box warning” on stimulant medications. A black box warning would have been the most serious type warning on a medication package label. Instead the FDA followed the sub-committee recommendations to add notes within the regular text of stimulant medication package inserts on potential cardiovascular risks, and order distribution of medication guides to patients and their caregivers. The warnings on the drug inserts were added LAST YEAR, but it took the FDA until now to order completion of the medication guides. Drug manufactures now have 30 days to implement this additional step, which is why the media is re-presenting this same information.

Additionally, cardiovascular risk studies at Mass General in adult ADD patients taking stimulant medication failed to show any increase risk of cardiovascular problems with long term stimulant use. Patients were followed for two year. The data is not supporting that the medications are causative.

At ADD Health and Wellness centers, we obtain a comprehensive cardiac history from all of our patients, including a thorough family cardiac history to ensure safe assessment prior to use of the medications. ADD treatment guidelines do not recommend routine EKG’s before administering stimulant medications since the data has not shown EKG changes as a side effect.

Now omega 3’s can prevent Alzheimer’s? We’ve known the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids for cardiac, mood disorders, and ADHD. Exciting new evidence now shows DHA, one of the brain omega-3’s, can also prevent you from getting Alzheimer’s. There were approximately 900 patients enrolled in this study at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. Results showed that the seniors (average age of 76) followed over a period of 9 years had a 47% lower risk of developing dementia if they had higher blood levels of DHA. More reason to eat fish and supplement your diet with omega-3’s!

The study results were published in the Nov 2006, Archives of Neurology.

Repeated ear infections - even some colds - can leave a fluid buildup that specialists long feared would dampen hearing and slow language and other learning. However, it now appears the hearing loss is too short-lived and mild to interfere with learning, at least in the vast majority of children.

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